Mud
by velvetwine
Summary: Sighing, Aerith knelt down on the hard wooden floor to pick up the damp, dirty towels that were strewn all over the bathroom. (Yet again, rated T for Cid's mouth.)


Sighing, Aerith knelt down on the hard wooden floor to pick up the damp, dirty towels that were strewn all over the bathroom. Somebody had decided it would be a good idea to tread their muddy boots up the stairs and all down the hallway leading to the upstairs bathroom, where they had then proceeded to wipe them with the towels and leave them all over the floor. The towels themselves, previously white, were now caked in a thick crust of mud. She cringed as she noticed the grey crud that had accumulated under her fingernails, attempting to scrape it off on to the corners of the ratty fabric. She sighed once more. Scooping the bundle up and throwing them in the the basket, she pulled herself to her feet again and made her way with it tucked under her arm down the hallway, and down to the bottom floor.

When she got there, she noticed that she was now alone. Cloud and Leon were most likely out training, with Yuffie dragging at their heels.. while Cid was no doubt down in the Gummi hangar, stinking the place out with smoke and cuss words. Merlin was probably out at the market buying ingredients for his potions.. and Tifa.. well, Aerith didn't really have any idea where she could be. She placed the large wicker basket crammed with dirty towels down by the dining room table, and headed into the kitchen to fetch the washing basin and detergent.

Due to Merlin's house being fairly old-fashioned, and the group not having enough money for a washing machine, everything had to be done painstakingly manually. She filled the basin with warm water from the tap, and tipped the detergent in; mixing and frothing it with her hands. She then set to work. As she soaked the towels one by one and scrubbed, she slipped into autopilot mode. Her mind began to drift back to her friends.. and who was to blame for the trail of mud. She doubted that Cloud or Leon would be so careless, or Tifa.. It was either Cid or Yuffie. Probably, most likely, it was Yuffie. You only had to take one look at that girl's room to gather that she was messy. It was one of the only places in the entire house that Aerith rarely touched, unless of course she had week-old dirty plates hidden up there. She had in fact found a black banana skin spotted with mould under her bed one time, alongside several other indistinguishable mould-covered items that had attached themselves to their plates.

On reflection of that, it probably was Yuffie. As much as she loved her to bits, she could be difficult to live with. She might of been the youngest out of the group, but she wasn't exactly a child anymore either. She was fully able to clear up after herself but.. Yuffie was Yuffie. By the time you came around to scolding her she had already bounced out of the door anyway. At least the two boys were a bit neater. She smiled at how she still referred to them as boys. Cloud and Leon were roughly the same age as her, 23 and 24, but she still thought of them as she had done so when they were all younger.. just the boys.

Cid, on the other hand, was definitely not a boy. He was only 32, so wasn't exactly old.. but considering he was the oldest out of them all (excluding Merlin, of course) he was automatically assigned the 'old man' position; much to his disliking. Come to think of it, Aerith didn't actually know how old Merlin was. None of them dared to ask. Smirking to herself, she looked down to see that the towel she had been idling scrubbing was now free of it's muddy shell. _'One down... three to go.'_ she thought to herself, sighing as she wrung the excess water out of the towel and laid it to one side. Before she could grab the next, the door swung open. Cid emerged, his face streaked with oil.

"What the hell happened to those towels?" He grunted, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it onto a peg on the wall. Aerith exhaled sharply through her nose, and smirked.

"I think this was Yuffie's doing." She chuckled under her breath. Cid scoffed.

"Damn fuckin' kid. She's disgusting." He stomped across the floor past her and into the kitchen area, yanking open the fridge and grabbing a bottle of beer. Aerith watched him curiously as he popped the cap off almost effortlessly with his belt buckle and took a swig.

"Does Merlin know you have those in there?" She asked, throwing him a knowing smile. Everybody knew how Merlin detested drinking.. especially Cid's casual beer habit. Whenever he came home to find bottles in the fridge he threw fits.

"What the old kook doesn't know won't hurt him." He snorted, prompting a giggle from Aerith. She gave him a playful look as she flung the next towel into the murky water.

"You shouldn't call him that.. you know how much you hate it when Yuffie calls you similar things."

Cid only snorted once more.

"Punk ass kid." He spat. "She came by the garage earlier to annoy me. I told her to fu-"

"Enough with the language!" Aerith scolded playfully. She let go of the towel in the water and wiped her wet hands across her dress on her lap.

"Where is everybody anyway?"

Cid took another swig, before wiping away the marks on his face with the back of his hand and sniffing loudly.

"Dunno. Think the guys went out training. Wait.. no, I know Leon went to go check out the Fissure with Spike. Funny reports of things going on about there and stuff.. knowing the brat, she probably tagged along with them."

"Ah." She murmured, plunging her hands back into the water once more. She began to scrub vigorously at the towel, furrowing her brow as the stain on it refused to budge. Cid watched her as he lent against the kitchen counter swigging his beer, pulling a face.

"You work too hard." He said bluntly. She stopped scrubbing and looked up at him, her face slowly melting into a frown.

"Somebody has to take care of it.." She said, scratching the side of her face with a wet and wrinkled finger. Sighing, she drove her hand into the water once more to fish out the towel so she could wring it. There were still two more left to wash.. she hated washing towels. They were so thick and bulky.. especially if they were caked in layer of crusty mud. Cid polished off his bottle and threw it in the recycling bucket to the side, stomping back in the direction of the front door. He shrugged his grubby jacket on again, and adjusted the collar as he turned to look back at Aerith one final time before leaving.

"When's dinner?" He called. Being reminded of another task she was yet to perform, Aerith shut her eyes in a frown.

"Around seven." She called back from across the floor. She heard the door close loudly behind her as she stared into the cloudy water. Glaring at her murky reflection in the basin, she yawned. Aerith was always the first up out of everybody, even Merlin, and always made breakfast for everyone. Come to think of it, she made lunch too.. and dinner. Groaning, she pulling herself away and grabbed another filthy towel, plunging it into the water. This was going to be another long day..

* * *

"Yuffie! How many times do I need to tell yo-.. oh for Gods sake." Leon plunged his weary face into his palm as he stood with Cloud at the Crystal Fissure; the two men standing helplessly as Yuffie pranced about.

"Let me fight you both!" She cried, attempting to balance herself on top of one of the large, pointed crystals. Leon shook his head and twisted his weapon in his hand.

"I'm not fighting you Yuffie." He said pointedly, causing Yuffie to come out with all sorts of comments. Cloud simply looked down at the ground and coughed lightly as the two bickered.

"You think just because I'm a girl I'm no good at fighting!" She yelled. "You're so wrong!" She jumped down from her position atop the crystal, flinging one of her small shurikens towards Leon; narrowly missing the side of his head.

"Hey- watch it!" He yelled, glaring at her. "This is just getting silly now. I'm leaving." The gunman turned on his heel, striding away. Cloud, not particularly wanting to be hit in the head with one of Yuffie's weapons either, followed suit. The young girl scoffed as she watched them leave.

"You're both so lame!" She yelled, sticking her tongue out childishly. After a few moments sulking, she realised that she didn't really want to be left on her own, and so trudged on after them.

Leon and Cloud strode ahead in silence; neither one of the men having much to say to one another. Their relationship was a funny one - they were friends, but there was tension between them. Cloud knew that Leon still held something against him for all the times that he had to leave, and the darkness in his past before they were reunited. He also knew that he hated the way he ran away from things. Cloud, on the other hand, didn't really have any real reasons for disliking Leon. He just never had anything to say to him.. and that was that. The only real time they spent in each other's company was when they trained. They were equally skilled fighters, and used that to their advantage when they practised together.

"Wait up!" Yuffie cried, as she jogged forward to walk alongside them. Neither of the two acknowledged her presence, and just continued in silence. Quickly boring of the lack of conversation, Yuffie began to kick a stone along with her boot.

"I'm starving." She moaned, taking another swing at the rock below her feet. "What's for dinner?"

"I don't know, Yuffie." Leon said, frustration in his voice. The ground crunched beneath their feet as they made their way through the ravine trail, leading them to the tattered tiled floor of the castle gates. Yuffie kicked the rock one final time, sending it flying across the patterned tiles. Cloud silently watched it come to a stop in front of him, stepping over it purposely. Yuffie pouted. Why were these two no fun?

Soon enough they reached the Borough, which led to Merlin's old house. She dashed ahead of them down the steps, and skipped towards the front door, which she banged loudly.

"Mer-lin!" She yelled in a sing-song voice, tapping rhythmically on the solid wood with her knuckles. The clicking sound of a lock could be heard, before the door swung open to reveal Aerith standing before her.

"Oh, Aerith!" She beamed, inviting herself in. The two men followed in after her, Leon rolling his eyes and sighing.

"Welcome back." Aerith said pleasantly, taking Leon's jacket and hanging it up. "Were you training?"

Leon blew air out of his mouth in a frustrated manner.

"We tried." He said, throwing daggers at Yuffie. "Why do you feel the need to follow us everywhere?"

Yuffie jerked her head around from her position on the sofa where she had flopped, bright eyed.

"Well, why not? What are you two gonna do alone, make out?"

She sat up a bit, making actions and kissing noises, much to her own amusement. Leon groaned.

"Enough!"

Aerith, who had since retreated back into the kitchen, sighed at their bickering. She wondered whether she should confront Yuffie about the mud.. but didn't know how to in a way that didn't seem too harsh. She didn't want to upset her, after all. Clearing her throat, she set the glass she was wiping down on the counter and turned around.

"Yuffie, was it you who left all that mud upstairs?" At the sound of her name and mud, Yuffie froze.

"..No!" She blurted out. "I bet it was Cid."

Aerith sighed before wiping her brow. "It wasn't Cid.. ah, it doesn't matter.. I cleaned it all up anyway." Reaching to put the glass back in its place in the cupboard, she slouched onto the counter and peered up at the clock above her. _6'oclock._

"Oh!" She said to herself quietly. _Dinner.._

Dismay struck her face as she opened the fridge to find that it was practically empty. Two eggs, a slab of meat she was pretty sure had gone off, and a stick of wilted celery.. and all of Cid's beers. What the hell was she going to make out of that?

"I could have sworn I went shopping three days ago.." She mumbled under her breath, picking up the meat in its brown paper wrapper cautiously and sliding it off the shelf. She didn't have to come any closer to confirm that the meat was past its prime. _Yuck._

Aerith actually wasn't too fond of meat anyway, she thought it was cruel to kill an animal purely for food.. but she cooked it for the others regardless of her feelings. Holding the chunk of flesh as far away from her as she could, she dumped it into the bin and took the bag out, tying it while scrunching up her nose.

"Could one of you please take the trash out? I need to hurry to the market before it shuts.." She said softly; Leon nodding in response as he sorted through some files on the messy desk next to the computer.

* * *

It was beginning to get dark as the sun set over Radiant Garden, but there were still people about. The various shops and stalls in the market didn't usually close until around half six, so she still had time. Aerith considered herself a pretty competent cook, and so thought off the top of her head what things she could buy to put together and make a meal.

Walking past the butchers, she smelt the familiar metallic tinge of meat. Cringing a little, she decided to keep walking. They could have a vegetarian meal tonight instead.

"You're a bit late today, Miss Gainsborough."

Her ears pricked up at the familiar voice. It was Colbert, a man who frequently took charge of the fresh produce stall.

"I've been busy today." She said softly, smiling up at him. Her eyes scanned over the stall, looking at all the nearly empty crates with the slightly bruised fruits and vegetables in. She frowned, leaning forward and picking up a large slightly wilted mushroom.

"Sorry, miss." He shrugged. "The days nearly through so this is all we have.. we will have fresh things in tomorrow though."

Aerith smiled sympathetically at him, placing the mushroom in her basket.

"It's okay.. these are still perfectly good for cooking with."

She paused momentarily before grabbing another mushroom, some garlic, two aubergines and a handful of tomatoes that were squashed to some extent. Handing over the money she owe, she smiled and thanked Colbert and continued round the market.

Yawning, she reached up with her free hand to rub her eyes. Today had really taken it out of her. First she had cleaned the kitchen, and then she had done the washing, then washed the windows, then cleaned those god-forsaken towels... she frowned, acknowledging all the boring chores she had done. When was the last time she did something fun? What saddened her the most was that she barely had time for gardening any more, which was her favourite thing. There was just something about flowers she loved; and although Merlin didn't actually have a garden, she used to enjoy growing various things in pots in the little windows and all around her room. She just about had time to water them nowadays, let alone tend and admire them. Her face fell as she trudged along, mulling over in her head all the things she used to enjoy doing that she no longer did. Suddenly, her face collided with something cold and solid.

"Ah!" She cried out, stumbling back. Looking up, she saw that she had just walked straight into – a lamppost. Her face grew a bright shade of pink as she heard laughter coming from behind, clearly aimed at her. She scolded herself for not watching where she was walking and hurried on ahead. She just wanted to get home now, she didn't care about buying anything else. Walking away as quickly as her legs could carry her, she felt her skin burning with embarrassment. Tears began to form in her eyes as she remembered why she hadn't been paying attention in the first place. She would give anything to have just one day where she could just sit and drink her favourite tea and tend to her plants, or read a book, or take a bath or..

She paused, wiping the hot tear away that had slid down her face. She knew she wasn't exactly being forced to do as much as she did, but she did feel somewhat obliged. Everybody else could fight. It was obvious that they were a lot stronger than she was.. all she could do in the way of the battle effort was perform healing spells. She knew a few others, but she wasn't practised enough to use them in any beneficial way. So, of course, she was the carer of the group. She was the one that tended to injuries and nursed the sick, and took care of the housework while they all spent their days training and fighting. However, catering and cleaning up after six people was no easy task. She felt a lot like their mother at times, making sure they were all well fed and cared for. She made sure they had clean clothes to wear; clean towels and bedsheets; a clean house to live in.. she did everything, basically.

Wiping her eyes one final time as she stood outside the house, she took a deep breath. She didn't want them to notice she was upset.. she didn't need the extra attention right now. Instead, she forced herself to smile as she went ahead and opened the door. Inside, everybody was downstairs just hanging about, clearly waiting for dinner. Yuffie laid on the couch on her back reading a book, while Cid sat in the armchair adjacent reading the paper. In the corner under the stairs, Leon was hunched over at the computer sorting through paper work as Tifa watched over his shoulder. In the other corner sat Cloud, fiddling with the handle on his sword.

"Sorry, dinner won't be long." She managed to chirp; nobody really acknowledging her presence. Her face becoming sad again, she walked toward the kitchen and set her basket down on the counter, lifting out the vegetables. Checking the cupboards to make sure there were oil, noodles and sauce, she set to work. She was going to throw together a stir-fry, as it was easy. She wasn't really feeling up to making anything fancy.

"C'moooooon Aerith, I'm hungry.." Yuffie wailed from the sofa, not bothering to look away from her book. Aerith tried her best to ignore her as she sliced into the aubergines, focusing on the task at hand. She had just had enough for one day. After she had finished chopping, she silently tipped the contents of the chopping board into a large pan and turned the stove on, watching silently as it began to heat up and cook the vegetables. She sorted the noodles and shook the pan so that nothing would burn. Nobody was saying anything in the house.. all that could be heard was the faint sizzling sound of the cooking and the rustling of newspaper as Cid turned a page. Not before long, Yuffie wailed again.

"God, I'm starving. Urgh." She groaned, flipping onto her stomach on the couch; the book she was previously holding flopping onto the floor with a thud.

"Urghhhhh.." She continued, mockingly holding her stomach and wailing. Aerith, stirring the contents of the pan, tried her best to block her out again. Right now, she just wanted to get dinner over with so that she could retreat upstairs to her room and sleep. She was exhausted.

When it was finally ready, she dished the food out into six bowls (it would usually be seven, but Merlin for whatever reason wasn't around tonight) and alerted everybody to the fact that dinner was on the table. Yuffie scrambled up from her place on the couch, skipping over to the table and throwing herself down in the chair. She hungrily grabbed her fork and stuffed a large amount of food in her mouth, chewing quickly. Cid grunted at her as he took his seat, clearly disgusted.

"Slow down, brat." He spat across the table, picking up his own fork. Yuffie acknowledged his comment, but did not respond. Instead, she swallowed her mouthful and stuffed another in, eating as messily as possible in a direct attempt to piss him off. Aerith watched on as she chewed her own food, sighing slightly. Cloud, who was sat to the right of her picked up upon this and looked at her quietly for a few seconds. She sat there, staring into her food and picking at it with her fork as if she were put off.

"You okay, Aerith?"

She looked up to see Tifa staring at her from across the table as she chewed her food.

"Oh, yes.. I'm okay!" She managed to chirp. Cloud, yet again picking up on her off behaviour, continued to look at her. It was only when she noticed and looked at him back that he turned away.

"Is it alright?" She asked, attempting a genuine smile. His blue eyes flicked up at her quickly, startled.

"Yes.. it's good, thank you." He smiled shyly, trying not to look in her eyes for too long.

"Don't." She heard Leon say sternly from the other end of the table. He sat there glaring at Yuffie, who had attempted to flick a piece of her dinner at Cid and had missed, hitting Leon's arm instead. She giggled and messily stuffed another mouthful in, chewing enthusiastically. Cid grumbled.

"I swear, kid. Once more.." His eyes were throwing daggers at the younger girl, who sat there grinning mischievously. Aerith once again looked down at her food as she ate in silence. It wasn't her best, but then again she hadn't really been paying full attention to cooking tonight. Instead, more sad thoughts began to plague her mind. She thought about Yuffie reading the book, and how she wished she could finally have time to sit down and read one of the many books she bought months ago from the little book store in the market. Alternatively, they had been sat in her room gathering dust. There had been one, a romance novel, that she remembered she had been particularly excited about reading. The story just seemed so perfect, and the characters so-

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU-" Her train of though was cut off by Cid's loud voice, who was now lent forward slightly over the table practically seething at Yuffie. She snickered and raised her eyebrows in her chair as she pulled a face at him.

"Ooh, I'm so scared." She teased, sticking her tongue out. Suddenly, something in Aerith snapped. Her usual patience and tolerance for this kind of nonsense had run dry for today. She had had enough.

"Enough!" She stood up and cried, slamming her fork down onto the table. Everybody's mouth hung open as they stared at her wide eyed in shock. Aerith, realising what she had just done, sunk a little as she looked round at everybody's shocked expressions. She crumbled, throwing her face into her hands and shoving the chair out from behind her. She fled the room, running quickly upstairs and shutting herself into her room where she could finally be alone.

Nobody dared say a word. Instead, they exchanged confused and shocked expressions between one another.

"This is all your fault, you stupid brat. Look what you did!" Cid growled, standing up and taking his empty plate over to the sink. He turned to face everybody, scowling.

"Well, now what?" He spat.

Everybody just sat totally frozen, not knowing what to do. Tifa sighed, and was the first to break the silence.

"I'm going to go talk to her.. you just all stay down here and clean up."

* * *

Tifa paused outside Aerith's room as she listened to faint sniffles coming from behind the door. Cautiously, she knocked.

"Aerith.. it's Tifa. Can I come in?"

A few seconds passed before Aerith approached the door, opening it slowly. Her head was hung as she wiped a few stray tears from her eyes. Tifa's face fell.

"What's wrong? Oh, don't cry.." She said softly, pulling the other woman into a hug. Propping her chin up on Tifa's shoulder, Aerith began to sob again. She then pulled away slowly and sniffled.

"I'm sorry.. I don't know what came over me, I.. I didn't mean to yell." She began. Tifa only shook her head and walked towards her bed, sitting down and motioning for her to join.

"I don't blame you, Yuffie and Cid's arguing is really beginning to tick me off too.. they wind each other up too much." She nervously laughed, placing her hands in her lap. A sniffle came out of Aerith's nose before she took a deep breath in.

"It wasn't Cid and Yuffie... well, okay, it was partly." She started. "Tifa.. I'm just.." She sniffled once more, before covering her face with her hands. "I'm so stressed! I have to do everything around here and I have no time for myself anymore and.. and.. nobody appreciates everything I do or.." She sobbed, her voice muffled as she cried into her palms. Tifa's face fell in guilt as she watched Aerith cry. She sighed and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to her.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry. We never knew you felt that way.." She began, cut off by Aerith uncovering her face from her hands.

"I cook, I clean, I wash, I polish... I.. urgh." She pushed a long sigh out of her mouth. "I know I can't fight like all of you and I'm not strong enough or wanted when you go training, so what choice do I have.." Tifa drew back, her face full of guilt. "Somebody has to do all the chores, but you're all so busy protecting the town that I'm the only one around.. it's never ending."

The two sat in silence for a few moments as Aerith continued to sniff and wipe her eyes, Tifa not really knowing what to say.

"We don't think you're weak.. we just know you're a healer, not a fighter." She began, scratching the back of her neck. "Maybe we can organise a rota so that everybody chips in to help and you're not left to do everything."

Aerith's face lifted a little.

"I'd like that.." she said in an almost whisper, closing her eyes. "Please. Or I'm going to end up going crazy stuck in here all day.. I feel like I'm a mother before I've even had children." She laughed nervously, wiping her eyes once more. Tifa snickered.

"Well.. you're a good mother. And we love you, you know."

She pulled the brown haired girl into another embrace, hugging her tightly and rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her. Aerith sighed, relieved.

"I love you all too.. but whoever trod mud all through upstairs and ruined the towels, can clean the toilets tomorrow."

Tifa snorted, grinning. "Yuffie is going to hate you."

"So it was Yuffie.. I knew it." Aerith sighed, letting a small smile creep on her lips. "Tell her off for me, will you? I'm exhausted.. I just want to sleep now."

Nodding to say she understood, Tifa stood up and smoothed down her skirt.

"I'll tell the others about this.. yeah? Don't worry, I will sort it." She turned to leave, throwing Aerith a comforting smile as she crept round the other side of the door, closing it gently behind her. Finally alone for the evening, Aerith flopped on her back onto the bed and let a long, relieved sigh escape her lips. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax, feeling the weight of her aching body beneath her.

Treading back down the creaky wooden stairs, Tifa was met with everybody's stares.

"So?" Cid grunted. Tifa hopped off the last step, throwing her hands onto her hips.

"Yuffie; Aerith spent all morning cleaning up after you." She scolded, causing Yuffie to cower slightly at the tone of voice she was using. This wasn't good.

"Next time, take your muddy shoes off outside.. yeah? Oh, and you're cleaning the toilets tomorrow."

Yuffie's face turned to that of horror.

"Nuh-uh!" She pouted. Tifa approached the others, sighing.

"I feel terrible.." she began, flopping down onto the sofa next to Cloud. Leon, who was lent with his arms folded against the wall next to the kitchen, frowned.

"What's going on?"

"I didn't realise that we left Aerith to do everything.. she said she feels like our mother, always cleaning up after us. Did you guys realise that she literally does _everything?_ "

The others sat in silence for a moment, thinking. Whenever they were in the house, Aerith was always doing something.. whether she was in the kitchen preparing their meals, or sat on the sofa sewing somebody's torn clothes..

Cid broke the silence with his trademark grunt, strolling to the fridge to grab a beer.

"I told that girl she works too damn hard." He muttered, bending down.

Leon sighed, rubbing his scar.

"You're right." He began, suddenly realising that Yuffie hadn't cleared her plate away from the table. He walked over and picked it up, placing it in the sink in the water. "I'm going to wash up."

Yuffie watched him wide-eyed, suddenly feeling quite guilty.

"I'll go and apologise." She whispered, trudging towards the steps. Tifa stopped her.

"She's probably asleep now.. just leave her be."

* * *

Aerith tossed and turned on top of the covers, unable to actually fall asleep. She was still wearing her long pink dress, as she couldn't be bothered to change. She was too exhausted. All of a sudden, she heard a quiet knock on the door. Not wanting to be rude and ignore it, she sighed and dragged herself to her feet, groaning at how they ached. Cloud's shy face was revealed as she opened the door a crack.

"Oh.. Cloud." She said softly, opening it a little wider. His eyes darted away and back again, as he nervously shuffled on his feet.

"May I.. uh, can I come in?" He said in an almost whisper, looking around to make sure nobody else was around in the hallway. She nodded, standing back to allow him to come in. Closing the door behind him, she turned to face him and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Weary green eyes met blue as they looked at one another. Cloud looked down shyly.

"I'm sorry you're upset.." He began, rubbing his neck. "I feel like I am partly to blame.. I ought to help out." Aerith's face lit up a bit, as she stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. Being considerably smaller than him, her face didn't even reach his shoulder, and so she pressed her face gently into his chest. Startled by the gesture, he froze.

"Thank you." She whispered, pulling away. He managed a smile as he blushed slightly.

"Would you, uh.. like to get coffee tomorrow? I'll pay." He had wanted to ask her for a while now, but never had the courage. He mentally cursed himself for asking so abruptly, waiting for her to decline his offer.

"I'd love to." She smiled. His mind instantly relaxed at her reply. He moved toward the door, smiling shyly. "Is tomorrow morning okay?" She inquired, lifting her hands to unravel her braid. He watched slightly in awe as her long, wavy brown locks fell free and over her shoulders.

"Uh, yeah. Sounds good." The door creaked open as he moved himself past it. "Goodnight.." He spoke softly, smiling once more before leaving. She bid him goodnight as well before letting a giddy grin escape. Had he just asked her on a date? She shook her head and brushed the thought away. Maybe he was just being kind and she was reading too much into it. Feeling instantly better, she sunk onto the bed once more, smiling happily to herself as she drifted off into a well-needed slumber.


End file.
